Painting
Sketch (Black and White)
Drawing (Color)
Photography
Digital Arts
Film and Animation
While painting as an art has flourished world-wide, our region has its own unique variant – mud-painting. Using the rich pigments from the alluvial soils, mud-painting produces a canvas that echoes the natural colors of the South.
Your Challenge: Using either conventional media (watercolor, acrylics, or oil) or creating your own paints, capture a scene that expresses the natural or sociopolitical history of the Ark-La-Tex. Entries will be divided into two sub-classes for judging: those created using purchased paint and those created with homemade paint. Indicate on your entry form what medium you have used. Paintings can be on canvas, wood, or paper, but must be no larger than 18 x 24 inches.
Submit a 1-minute video in MP4 format explaining your technique and inspiration. Do NOT include your name or the name of your school. This information will be included on the entry form. Submit a photo of your project in JPEG format and no larger than 5 MB in size.
Tip: For best results, use a well-lit area, set your phone to HD mode (when possible), and keep your image squared.
The simplicity and timelessness of pencil offers a wonderful medium for capturing the history of a region, reducing a scene or subject to its essentials. It also mimics the black and white photography that we associate with the nineteenth century.
Your Challenge: Choose a scene or subject that evokes the essential spirit of the Ark-La-Tex and capture it in pencil on a page no larger than 18 x 24 inches.
Submit a 1-minute video in MP4 format explaining your technique and inspiration. Do NOT include your name or the name of your school. This information will be included on the entry form. Submit a photo of your project in JPEG format and no larger than 5 MB in size.
Tip: For best results, use a well-lit area, set your phone to HD mode (when possible), and keep your image squared.
It’s not only younger artists who enjoy capturing the full colors of a scene. The vibrant hues of the Ark-La-Tex demand attention – the endless varieties of green from oak leaves to salvinia to moss crawling over damp stone walls, the heron’s white wings against the dark river, the kaleidoscope of Mardi Gras or the State Fair. Color has a festive quality that celebrates the beauty of our region.
Your Challenge: Using colored pencil or crayon and any technique you like, present an image or a scene or an abstract representation of the history of the Ark-La-Tex in a drawing no larger than 18 x 24 inches.
Submit a 1-minute video in MP4 format explaining your technique and inspiration. Do NOT include your name or the name of your school. This information will be included on the entry form. Submit a photo of your project in JPEG format and no larger than 5 MB in size.
Tip: For best results, use a well-lit area, set your phone to HD mode (when possible), and keep your image squared.
There are so many ways to capture the history of the Ark-La-Tex through the camera lens: abandoned spaces, historical buildings, bridges, rivers, portraits, even gardens have stories to tell that sometimes emerge most powerfully through the silent medium of photography. Some of these stories are deeply personal – weeds growing on an abandoned grave or your great-grandfather sitting in his favorite chair. Others are public and political – a repurposed school building or statues in a city park.
Your Challenge: Select a subject that, to you, represents the history of the Ark-La-Tex and submit up to four photographs of that subject. Whether you choose to present one photograph or four, the overall size of your exhibit must not exceed 18 x 24 inches.
Submit a 1-minute video in MP4 format explaining your technique and inspiration. Do NOT include your name or the name of your school. This information will be included on the entry form. Submit a photo of your project in JPEG format and no larger than 5 MB in size.
Tip: For best results, use a well-lit area, set your phone to HD mode (when possible), and keep your image squared.
Since the 1980s, computers have been increasingly used to create artwork for a variety of media, including movies, video games, magazines, websites, and more. This art form has truly freed artists from the constraints of traditional media and opened up to them a world of unlimited possibilities. Embrace this new media and express yourself creatively with bold new visions of the Ark-La-Tex.
Your Challenge: Using digital painting, illustration, or photo-manipulation software, create a single piece of digital art that best represents the Ark-La-Tex. The artwork can be personal, historical, or even whimsical in nature. Please indicate in a note what software was used to create your artwork. All artwork must be an original creation to be considered.
Submissions should be saved in JPEG format and no larger than 5 MB in size.
Moving pictures (film) and animation have been around since the 1890s. “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” from 1906 is one of the first silent animated cartoons. We have been mesmerized by moving pictures, both photographic and hand-drawn, for over a hundred years, and we continue to push new boundaries with stop-motion animation, 3D animation, and experimental approaches to film and VFX each year. What stories can you tell with film and animation that embody the uniqueness of the Ark-La-Tex? What wonderful worlds will you take us to? What makes the Ark-La-Tex a fantastic place to discover?
Your Challenge: Using digital film and film editing approaches, compositing, or 2D/3D/experimental animation, create a presentation that embraces the unique aspects of your experiences in the Ark-La-Tex.
Video submissions must be in MP4 format and not exceed 5 minutes.